The Nest in the Honeysuckles, and other Stories eBook

She did not remain with the children to hear them
as they talked together, but a few days afterwards
she asked Eddie what Mary told him about Jesus.
He repeated the history of his birth, of the cruel
persecution of Herod, of his blameless life, and his
death upon the cross.

Eddie is too young to realize much about the great
love of Christ, and how much he has done for us that
we may be happy, but he is not too young to love him.

I hope he will never forget the sweet story Mary told
him. Jesus loves little children. He is
their best friend, always ready to forgive them when
they are sorry for doing wrong, and to help them when
they try to do what is right.

Even now, as I am writing, I hear children singing

“There is a happy land
Far far away.”

The sound grows fainter and fainter—­eyelids
are drooping—­sleep is near—­the
voices are hushed—­the little ones are slumbering.
May “holy angels guard their bed.”

[Illustration]

THE SUNNY FACE, AND THE SHADY FACE;
OR, JUNE AND NOVEMBER.

“How happy I am to-night! I love you so
much I want to be with you all the time,” said
Willie to his mother, as he followed her from the
dining-room to the nursery, one stormy evening.

What made Willie so happy? It was not because
the day had been pleasant, and he had been permitted
to enjoy himself out of doors, for a chilling snow
had been falling, and Willie had been obliged to remain
in the house. It was not because he was well,
for many hours of the day he had been lying on the
bed too ill to sit up all the time. It was not
because he had received a handsome present, for none
had been given him.

There had been nothing unusual to make him so happy,
excepting a thought hidden in the secret recesses
of his heart. Shall I tell you what that thought
was, that made his face so bright and sunny, that
made his eyes sparkle, and wreathed his lips with smiles?
I will tell you in his own words, and I hope you will
treasure it in your heart. If you do, your face,
too, will be cheerful and smiling, and your friends
will love to look upon you.

When Willie told his mother how happy he was, she
put her arm around him, and drew him lovingly to her
side. “What makes you so happy?” she
inquired.

“I suppose it is because I have been trying
to be good,” he answered.

“That always makes people happy,” his
mother replied.

Willie is generally a good boy, but he sometimes does
wrong, and wrong-doing always makes him sad.
It was a great pleasure to him that he had tried to
be good, and had been enabled to overcome temptation.

All children are sometimes tempted to do wrong, and
it often requires a severe struggle to decide to do
right. But every child who overcomes evil feels
a conscious happiness and self-respect in so doing.
I hope you will “try to be good.”
If you do, and look to Christ for strength, he will
aid you, and through his grace you will be able to
become conqueror over the sins that “so easily
beset you.”